Contributed by Human Resources

Over the past year, Austin Community College District (ACC) partnered with Guidehouse to conduct a comprehensive review of how jobs are classified and compensated across the College. That study is now complete, and ACC has begun implementing a new framework — developed in partnership with College leadership, supervisors, and employee stakeholders — to bring more consistency, clarity, and equity to how positions are structured and paid.

ACC’s Human Resources (HR) Vice Chancellor, Kelly Torrico, hosted a special Campus Conversation on Friday, January 9, to help employees understand the process and answer questions. The recording can be found on the Campus Conversations web page. Below are highlights from the discussion.

Why was this work needed? 

The study showed that over time, job titles, job descriptions, and pay practices had grown inconsistent. Employees with the same title were sometimes doing very different work—or being paid very differently—while others with different titles were performing similar duties. These inconsistencies made it difficult to explain pay decisions, created confusion, and eroded trust.

About the new framework

The new framework introduces a job architecture that organizes positions into 12 clear job categories (such as coordinator, specialist, manager, and director), along with simplified pay bands. The number of pay grades has been reduced from 21 to 14, helping address pay compression and create more predictable, explainable alignment across roles.

Importantly, this framework is competency-based. Jobs are classified based on the skills, responsibilities, scope, and impact the College needs from a position, not on the individual currently in the role. Compensation decisions are then made using clear criteria, including job requirements, market data, internal equity, and an individual’s experience within the pay band. This approach helps ensure fairness and consistency while still allowing for individual growth and development within a role.

Applying adjustments

As part of this work, 1,297 positions were reviewed. Of those, 437 positions received salary adjustments, with an average increase of $5,500. About 120 employees received adjustments of 10% or more. The College invested approximately $2.4 million in these adjustments. No salaries were reduced.

Many of the salary adjustments were based on reclassification request outcomes. Most were to align employees to the new compensation framework, which is based on market data and supports decompression across pay ranges and, in many cases, the people in them. Two divisions, Student Affairs and Basic Needs, were temporarily excluded due to ongoing realignment and will be reviewed later this year using the same framework and principles.

Next steps

There is still work ahead. Over the coming months, HR will:

  • Move the new job architecture and compensation processes into Workday
  • Publish updated job categories, pay bands, and governance rules
  • Roll out a modernized compensation manual
  • Begin a phased update of job descriptions using standardized templates

While not every detail is finalized, the goal is clear: to build a compensation and classification system that is fair, transparent, predictable, and sustainable over time—and that better supports employees and students alike.

Questions

Stay abreast of updates as HR takes a phased approach to update systems and processes throughout the year. 

Visit the FAQ section of the Classification & Compensation web page. If your question is not answered there:

Post edited to add clarity on Thursday, January 15